Career Highlights
East Gaston High School 1990-1993: Wrestling – sophomore, 21-5 record; junior 35-1-1, third in state; senior 37-0, state champion at 160 pounds.
Shelton Camp
No Time To Lose.
Shelton Camp took up wrestling in middle school. He graduated high school as a state champion.
Shelton Camp didn’t grow up with “high school wrestler” on his to-do list.
But as he was leaving W.C. Friday Middle School in Dallas one afternoon, he heard a voice:
“I’ll see you tomorrow at practice.” Practice? For what? “Football season was over, and I guess this guy told the coach I’d do it. This was in seventh grade. I liked it, but I wasn’t good the first year,” Camp says. “I got beat all the time.” Camp decided he was capable of more. He became driven, focused.
“Me and my friend started training, and since I got beat up the first year, I was determined that the next year I was going to make a better effort,” he says. “I won Most Improved. Pretty much after that it was just like, I knew what I wanted to do in high school. I wanted to win the state championship.”
What happened during three years at East Gaston High School became Camp’s second ticket to the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame.
The 1990-91 East Gaston High School team, coached by Doug Smith, was inducted in 2021 in honor of its 20-0 season and second of three consecutive state championships. That year, the Warriors were 6-0 in the Tri-County 4A Conference and beat Cary for the state title.
This year, Camp, 47, is entering as an individual. “It kind of caught me off guard when I got the call,” he says, “but it was good. I’d hoped I would be able to do it.”
Camp compiled a 96-6-1 record in three years at East Gaston. He went 35-0 his senior year and won that state championship in the 160-pound division.
He went 21-5 as a 153-pound sophomore in 1990-91, then 35-1-1 in 1991-92 under head coach Bryan Lingerfelt, who led the team to a 14-1 record and 30-25 victory over Orange High School in the state championship. Then came the finale, 1992-93.
“My senior year was amazing. There were a couple of big matches, but one of them was when I won the West Regional and was MVP of the tournament,” he says. “The guy I wrestled in the finals was undefeated, and of course I was undefeated, and it was a two-day tournament so there was a lot of talk – a lot of talk – going on, and that was one of the biggest matches I had.”
Camp, who wrestled at 160 pounds his final year, recalls being “pretty much in control” the whole match. “I had him pinned in the second period, and I’m glad it went three periods,” he says. “I had a chance to finish it all the way through and win after two days of hype.”
Part of that hype is the Parade of Champions.
“When it comes down to the state finals, the top four in each weight class all marched in a circle in the stadium before the finals,” he says. “And they played that song [“We Are the Champions” by Queen] and it’s just cool because it’s all the different teams. Most of them, it was their last match of high school. They played that song and you can’t even describe the goosebumps.”
After high school, Camp attended junior college, played a little semi-pro football, then enrolled in Gaston College, where he studied welding. He’s progressed to being a QA (Quality Assurance), the person who uses technological methods to test or assure the quality of welds.
Camp still lives in Dallas. He has four children, a fiancé and the satisfaction of winning that high school championship.
“My mom motivated me,” he says. “She came to almost every one of my matches. She may have missed one my senior year. She was always cheering and hollering for me. I didn’t want to disappoint her.”
From “See you tomorrow at practice” to ‘We are the champions/No time for losers/’Cause we are the champions of the world.’